So, I was just assaulted by a trio of fairly well armed thugs while walking out of Riften. Before attacking me, they informed me that they were 'here to teach me a lesson.'

After dispatching them in due course, I found this on the body of what I can only assume to be the leader, given his vastly superior armaments:

Orgnar is the innkeeper in Riverwood. Now, I admit, I've stolen a fair amount, but I pride myself on having never been caught. My total bounty to date is at zero. So, how did he figure out that I stole something, why is he taking the law into his own hands, and if I go back to Riverwood, am I going to get shanked?

This happened to me too, I don't know how he figured out that you stole from him, perhaps someone saw you sneak into his shop. Btw, did you use the bucket maneuver on him? Just curious.
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z 'Nov 15 '11 at 0:02

1

@yx.I haven't needed to bother with buckets. 99% of what's worth stealing is in peoples pockets anyway, and the remaining 1% can easily be taken by gaming LoS running up and down stairs. Buckets is too much effort.
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LessPop_MoreFizz♦Nov 15 '11 at 0:10

2

This stupid bounty thing sucks, putting a big damper in my rampant thievery of all shopkeepers in the game.
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z 'Nov 15 '11 at 0:14

1

Maybe shopkeepers can tell if you sell stolen goods back to them?
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Chris RasysNov 15 '11 at 1:33

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@ChrisRasys: You don't have that option in Skyrim. Stolen goods can only be sold to a Fence.
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LessPop_MoreFizz♦Nov 15 '11 at 1:51

3 Answers
3

Certain characters are more shrewd than others and can figure out if they've been stolen from and who did it. One of my favourite examples is Anise (the lady with the shack near Riverwood). She's sent guards to all 3 of my characters.

There's no penalty later on if you decide to talk to them, they'll act like it never happened (I think, or maybe they'll dislike you more, but it's basically the same).

I've also only ever had one set of thugs from each person, even if I continue to steal from them.

+1 I also had Anise send goons to attack me, even though I don't recall doing anything different to her than others... In a weird way it is a REWARD since they were easy and it's free experience and loot :)
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TM.Nov 15 '11 at 22:40

Anise realized that I stole stuff from her hidden basement room and started attacking me so I killed her.
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ZachFeb 10 '12 at 4:50

It was put in so there are some consequences at least to stealing. Let's face it, it's pretty easy to rob someone of all their worldy possesions right under their noses, so I think this was a way of at least having some consequences. Even if you don't get caught, in theory he may have noticed that he was wearing a shirt before you came in!